The GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.

RAYS 2, Mariners 1 (boxscore)

THE GOOD: David Price. The Ace returned with a complete game, striking out 12 and walking none (see highlights below). This is exactly why I said the Rays were 2 decent weeks away from being a first-place team. No team was running away with the division (in fact, the Orioles are 9-3 in 1-run games and are an overrated team right now). We knew Price was going to be better at some point. We knew Alex Cobb, a pitcher that would be an ace on some teams, was coming back soon. And with Price and Cobb doing their thing, the bullpen would be better because they would be needed less…9th inning rally. Fernando Rodney throws a fastball and a changeup. David DeJesus led off the 9th and was sitting on the changeup. He got one a little up and tied the game with a home run. Matt Joyce then gave the Rays the lead with a 2-out single in which it sounded like he broke his bat (see video below). Joyce hit the ball off the end of the bat and if he hits it clean the ball is probably caught in center field. Instead, the ball fell in front of Jones and the Rays had the lead…Team Stirrups and Stripes. David Price wore stirrups for the first time since he was in the minors, noting he needed to change things up a little bit. He had his best start of the season. I’d say this is probably not the last time we will see the stirrups and I couldn’t be happier…Joe Maddon Cologne. Joe Maddon had a bunch of colognes and after-shaves available in the dugout (see photo here) to help the players get rid of the stink. Many of the players and coaches wore the cologne during the game, with Price wearing Aqua Velve Blue like his dad. Maddon had more ordered for the Trop.

THE BAD: No Jump-and-Bump. With no Alex Cobb, Jeremy Hellickson, or Matt Moore in the dugout, there was no complete game, post-game, jump-and-bump for David Price. It is unclear if this was just the new starters not knowing or if they have abandoned the celebration because of the injury risk…Let’s go easy on the cologne. Fans like to emulate the players when things are going well. What the Trop doesn’t need is 20,000 fans wearing cologne in September. It will be awful.

THE TELLING: Enny Romero was called up and then he wasn’t. Apparently he was flown from Durham to Seattle as a precautionary move, possible because there was some indication that Erik Bedard was injured. Apparently Bedard is fine and Romero was sent back. Poor Romero, though. He thought he was actually being promoted.

Seattle Bound!! ✈️ Very happy to be blessed with another big league opportunity ⚾️ #RaysBaseball

Matt Moore is just one of many young, hard-throwing pitchers recently who needed Tommy John surgery. [BI Sports]

DOWN ON THE FARM [boxscores] Mike Montgomery rebounded from his last start to throw 8 innings with 7 strikeouts and 1 walk, giving up just 1 run. Jerry Sands hit his 7th home run. Hak-Ju Lee went 0-4 and is now just 9-50 (.180) to start the season…Third baseman Taylor Motter went 3-5 and is hitting .308 for Montgomery…Charlotte and Bowling Green were both shutout.

Happy for now. Still got a lot of ground to makeup. Archer and Price need to set the tone. Longo & Myers we need your bats more consistently and for the love of god can molina sit as often as possible Hanigan is 100 times better

When you find yourself searching "lowest batting average in a season" during his at bats (it looks like one guy batted .135 for a season with 100 at bats or so, so he has a chance), you know Molina has approached rock bottom. They had 1st and 2nd two outs in the 5th with him coming to the plate, and I'm looking for Joe to pull him (he did in the 8th finally).

Hannigan's framing on Cano's called 3rd strike in the 9th was better than any glove work Molina has done all year, BTW. Hannigan just looks liek a candidate to break down, because he ends up never getting a night off because the Rays always have to pinch hit for Jose in every game.

I'm excited we finally won a game, but I have to temper that excitement. Not every close win can turn the season around. We won that double header in Boston and everyone said the same thing, but look what happened the following week after the Yankees series.

Until Hellboy and especially Cobb come back this team is about survival. Every win is critical. This team will get better, the question is will it be enough once the rotation is somewhat back in order.

Special bonus points to Matt Joyce for defeating the shift late in the game (the 8th I think) against a nasty pitcher practicing witchcraft out there. That ran up his pitch count and got him out of the game and enabled Dejesus to get up to lead off the 9th v. Rodney. Some Skin Bracer aftershave is due for Matty J. for sure. He has been giving the Rays the most consistent at bats all season.

(Somebody tell JoeMa to give Zobrist a day off -- he has rollled over sliders in every time zone the last 2 weeks. Needs to regroup and he'll be fine.)

You gotta feel for MiLB players, they are always getting jerked around.

Thats what separates baseball players from all other team sports. Everybody no matter how gifted spends a at least a couple to few years in podunk towns being ferried around in buses never quite sure where you will play next week.